This message is in response to the Many inquiries I receive asking 
How Do I run C64 games on my PC or similarly related questions.
And in response to How can I transfer my C64 programs to my PC for
use on an emulator & How do I connect my 1541/1571 disk drive to my 
PC & what software should I use etc.  

I regret that I'm unable to individually answer all such questions
on their own merit as I'm too busy uploading files to the net &
maintaining 3 sites, studying and trying to live a social life however!!!.

(1)	Simply stated to run C64 programs / games on your PC you will need of the many Commodore
	Emulators available at one of the sites noted below, in most cases they're free and don't
	require any very special skills to optimize them for use with most pc's however reasonable
	performance usually demands a 75mhz machine or higher with 16 meg of ram or so for fair
	performance under Windows. Some Emulators run OK on lesser machines under Dos however.  

(2)	Software by way of Commodore image files in their many formats can be obtained from many
	and varied sources. Start looking at the links pages on one of my sites for these if You 
	can't find what you want at my actual FTP Request sites.
	http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Horizon/2102/  my Geocities site
	http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/portal/1243/ my Fortune City site
	Please Bookmark Geocities & Fortune Cities sites 

(3)	How to actually run the games etc. on whatever emulator you decide to try can only properly 
	be learned by laboriously reading all the documentation that comes with the emulator when
	You download it. Read all. doc & .txt type files you possibly can then read them as many
	times as necessary till You understand how to properly run Your particular Emulator.
	No single emulator can run all programs so it is often necessary to have 3 or 4 different
	ones to cover most games, programs etc. and all have different operating procedures 
	although most are very similar.

(4)	Transferring Your own programs to the PC is accomplished with programs such as 
	STAR-COMMANDER by Joe Forster and available at http://hem.passagen.se/bacchus/tools/pc.html
	as well as many other locations. This is the only program that I recommend as it has served 
	me very well on several different computers, clock speeds etc. Learning to use this program
	is the same as learning to use the Emulators above. Read All Documentation thoroughly till
	you are sure you understand what You are doing. It is possible to delete files from Your PC
	and do other mischief if You don't watch what You are doing with this program but it really
	does do the job of transferring files from the Commodore disk drive to the PC very well.
	 
(5)	You're still not out of the woods as You require 1 more item, the hardware component.
	An X1541 cable is needed. This device connects your Commodore disk drive serial port to
	Your PC parallel port (usually only functions on LPT1) 
	These can be ordered through various sources on the web.
	To find who is selling them do a search for +"X1541"+cable or similar search till You find 
	a supplier close to Your location. I will make & send anywhere in the world for $45:00 Aust.
	upon receipt of an order and cheque or money order as payment, Delivery times allow 21 days
	If You wish to order a cable made up e-mail me in advance at cocosoft@qldnet.com.au or
	cocosoft@usa.net and let me know your return delivery details, I'll respond with my
	postal address for payment etc.

(6)	Below are 3 url's where I go to find Emulators, Star Commander & other Commodore Resources.
	If You're feeling brave the end of page contains details on how to construct Your own X1541
	cable. This is the circuit diagram I use to construct mine. 
	If You proceed to make Your own be extremely careful as 1 wire or wire strand out of place 
	can fry your PC for You and I accept NO RESPONSIBILITY regarding misinterpretation of the
	circuit diagram, plain bad workmanship, or any other element which results in the unit
	either not working or causing damage to any hardware device whatsoever. The diagram below
	is as it was downloaded from the net and as stated earlier the one I personally use.

(7)	Finally, I hope this has gone some way to answering some of the questions to which it is 
	directed, good luck & lots of fun with Your C=64-PC combo.
				
			  3 URL'S WHERE YOU SHOULD FIND THE NECESSARIES 
	
	http://members.aol.com/chrissalo/              emulators
	http://www.jbrain.com/caboom/                  1 stop Commodore links site
	http://www.fairlight.to/

			INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE X1541 CABLE CONSTRUCTION FOLLOW

 by  GHIELMET@eldi.epfl.ch (Leopoldo Ghielmetti)

The X1541 program requires an adapter cable to connect your PC parallel 
printer port (LPT1/LPT2/LPT3) and a Commodore disk drive (1541/1581).
*(The Female port pinouts are shown below. The normal cable is Male-Male.)

                                  CBM IEEE serial port *Female*:
     IBM Lpt port *Female*:                ___ ___
        ,-----,                          .-   -   -.
Strobe--+-1*  '---,                    .-           -.  _____
        |      *14+--AutoFeed    Data--+--*5     1*--+--SrqIn  _____
(Data 0)| 2*-,    |                   (       6*------)---------Reset
        |    |_*15|(Error)      Clock--+--*4     2*--+---Ground
        | 3*      |  ____              ._    3*     _.
        |      *16+--Init                .____|____.
        | 4*      |                       Atn-|
        |      *17+--SelectIn  -------------------------------------------
        | 5*      |            | C64signal |  IBMsignal       Lptport +2 |
        | 6*   *18+-+-Ground   |  2 Ground | 18..25 Ground               |
        |         | |          |  3 Atn    |      1 Strobe      bit0     |
        | 7*   *19+-|          |  4 Clock  |     14 AutoFeed    bit1     |
        vvvvvvvvvvv |          |  5 Data   |     17 SelectIn    bit3     |
        |      *25+-+          |  6 Reset  |     16 Init        bit2     |
        |13*  ,---'            -------------------------------------------
        '-----'




X1541.EXE  IBM <--> C64 file reader

type "x1541"   for the interface scheme (see above)
type "x1541 ?" for the options list
     options are : "/b" force monochrome mode
                   "/c" force color mode
                   "/LPTn" force I/O from LPT port n (n in range 1..3)

<ALT>     Activate Menu or to dismiss menu and go to file list
          Also used to dismiss status boxes (after COPY)
<ENTER>   Highlight memu or Select menu item
<DOWN>    Highlight menu

<ESC> or  Go back; Highlight previous menu 
<LEFT>or
<UP>      ( Sub-menu stays screen, but is no longer highlighted)

<TAB>     Move between 1541 and IBM filelists
          Also used move to "OK" in COLOR menu

Cursor keys    Move through menus
<PAGE UP> &    and Move through filelists
<PAGE DN>   


<SPACE>   Select files in filelist for copying

1541-COMMAND Note:     command letter (e.g. N0:Test Format,tt) 
                   Must be capital letter --^


**** Brief command sequence for file copy ********

1. OPEN 1541   <ENTER> to select and highlight Drive# sub-menu
               <ENTER> to select drive number (8-11)
2. OPEN IBM
3. <TAB> to source filelist
4. <SPACE> selects file(s)
5. <ALT> for menu
6. COPY
7. <ALT> to dismiss status box after copy is complete

DE NADA 

Well I forgot to mention it, to make a file with another extension (seq, 
usr, rel (not yet supported)) you should give the correct extension to the
IBM file Eg. *.seq will be transferred as sequential file (seq)

In normal condition 1581 and 1571 have the same mechanism as 1541 but for
lack of documentation I did not implement the fast serial mode feature.

ciao, Leopoldo


           /**************************************\
           * Ghielmetti Leopoldo                  *
           \**************************************/*****\
                   *   e-mail : ghielmet@eldi.epfl.ch   *
                   \************************************/

Posting and docs by bjh@linc.att.com

I regret that my further responses to inquiries regarding these same questions
will be met by Resending this message and advise to contact the comp.emulators.cbm 
newsgroup for more detailed questions re emulators which is best etc.etc. so please
contact one of the commodore newsgroups listed on one of my links page for more 
detailed answers to Your questions. Once again Good Luck & Regards Bob Cohen
questions 

